Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/New York - Wikisource, the free online library (2024)

NEW YORK

I. New York State.

Plate XI.NEW YORK, one of the original thirteen United Statesof America, is situated between 40° 29' 40" and 45° 0'2" N. lat. and between 71° 51' and 79° 45' 54".4 W. long.It is bounded N. by Lake Ontario and the St Lawrenceriver, which separate it from the province of Ontario; E.by Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; S. by theAtlantic Ocean, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and W.by Pennsylvania, Lake Erie, and the Niagara river.

Topography.—The State of New York has a triangularoutline, with a breadth from east to west of 326.46 miles,and from north to south, on the line of the Hudson, of 300miles. In addition it includes Long Island and StatenIsland on the Atlantic coast. Its area is 49,170 squaremiles,—47,620 square miles, or 30,476,800 acres, beingland, and the remainder portions of the great lakes thatborder it. The surface is more diversified than that ofany other State in the Union. The eastern and southernportions are high, and from these the land slopes gentlynorth and west to Lake Ontario. The mountainous beltof the eastern part is cut through by the great water-gapof the Mohawk valley, which once connected the Ontariobasin with the trough of the Hudson below the presentocean-level, and is the most interesting and importantfeature in the topography of the State.

Mountains.—The mountains of New York form threedistinct groups. (1) The Adirondacks, a series of shortranges having a north-north-east and south-south-westdirection, form the centre of the elevated region of thenorth-east section of the State. The highest of these isMount Marcy, 5344 feet, with several associated summitswhich reach the altitude of 5000 feet. (2) TheCatskill Mountains, with their foothills, occupy about 500square miles south of the Mohawk valley and west of theHudson; the highest peaks reach an altitude of 4000 feet.The Helderberg and Shawangunk Mountains aretopographically a portion of the Catskills, the first on thenorth, the second on the south. These all belong to theAlleghany system, and are connected with the mountainsof Pennsylvania by the Delaware Mountains, which havean altitude of from 1600 to 2800 feet. (3) The Highlandsof the Hudson, through which the river passes at WestPoint, are the northern continuation of the Blue Ridge ofPennsylvania, having an altitude of from 1200 to 1800feet. The so-called mountains of the central and southerncounties are portions of a high plateau which connectswith the Helderberg and Catskill Mountains on the east.This is cut by eroded valleys in such a way as to leavemany elevated points, of which the highest is East Hill inOtsego county, 2300 feet above the sea.

One of the most peculiar and impressive topographicalfeatures is formed by the cliffs of the Palisades, whichborder the Hudson in Rockland county, and are continuouswith those of New Jersey.

Lakes and Rivers.—Two of the chain of great lakesborder the State, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario,connected by the Niagara river, on which is the mostcelebrated cataract in the world. Lake Erie gives about75 miles of coast-line to New York, LakeOntario over 200. The surface level of theformer is 573 feet above the sea, of the latter245 feet; and this is 606 feet deep. Aportion of the eastern border of New York isformed by Lake Champlain, which lies in the troughbetween the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains.Within the State the number of lakes is very great.The largest is Lake George, famous for its beautifulscenery. Through the central portion a series ofpeculiar elongated lakes are found which lie with anearly north-and-south bearing on the slope fromsouthern highlands to the Ontario basin, or the Mohawkvalley. The largest of these are Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida,Crooked, Canandaigua, Owasco, and Otsego. These areriver valleys once occupied and modified by glaciers anddammed up by moraines. The Adirondack region isfamous for its system of lakes, which are favourite placesof resort for tourists. Among the rivers of New Yorkthe Hudson is the largest and most beautiful. Formerlyit ran several hundred feet below its present level, andwas the great channel of drainage which led through theMohawk valley from the interior. Now, by a subsidenceof the continent, it is an arm of the sea, and navigable toTroy, 151 miles from its mouth. The Black River, theMohawk, and the Genesee are all large streams which lieentirely within the State, while the Alleghany, theSusquehanna, and the Delaware rise there, but soon leaveit to become the great rivers of Pennsylvania. From thevaried topography and the abundant rainfall the numberof streams is large, and many of them are marked bypicturesque falls. Besides the great cataract of Niagara, amile wide and 164 feet high, which New York shares withCanada, there are many other falls worthy of mention, asthose of the Genesee at Rochester and Portage, TrentonFalls, the Falls of Ticonderoga, &c. Among the naturalfeatures which distinguish the State its mineral springsdeserve special mention. Those of Saratoga, Balston,Sharon, Avon, and Richfield are famous throughout theUnion. They differ much in chemical composition andmedicinal virtues, but all are popular places of resort, andsome have gathered round them towns of considerable size.

Climate.—In a general way it may be said that theclimate of New York is typical of that of the northernUnited States, a climate of extremes, hot in summer andcold in winter, and yet healthful, stimulating, and on thewhole not disagreeable. The average annual temperatureis about 47° Fahr., the average maximum of summer heat93°, the temperature of 100° being rarely reached, and102° the highest maximum record. The minimum temperatureis about -20° Fahr., never attained in the southernportion, seldom in the central, butoften passed by four or fivedegrees in the most northern counties.The average rainfall is about 40inches. Frosts begin fromSeptember 1st to October 1st, andend from April 1st to May 1st,according to the locality and year.In the Adirondack region the snowfallis heavy, the winter long andsevere. In central New York it isnot uncommon for snow to accumulateto the depth of 3 or 4 feet,and yet this is not persistent. AboutNew York city and on Long Islandthe snow rarely exceeds a foot indepth, sleighing is always uncertain,and sometimes the ground will bebare for weeks together. Thus itwill be seen that the climate ofNew York is intermediate incharacter between that of NewEngland and the Mississippi valleyStates,—a little milder than thefirst, severer than the last. Thegreat lakes which border it arenever frozen to their centres, andexert an equalizing influence uponthe climate of their shores.

In the absence of extensivealluvial plains and marshes, there is little malaria, and theclimate is salubrious. About New York city and on LongIsland the ocean softens the rigours of winter, and throughthe influence of the Arctic current, which bathes the coastas far south as Cape Hatteras, renders the summerperceptibly cooler.

The local variation of climate within the limits of theState will be best seen by the following table:—

Fauna.—At the advent of the whites the fauna of NewYork included all the wild animals which were foundin the north-eastern States of the Union or the adjacentportions of Canada, but by the cutting off of forests, andthe occupation of the surface by farms, the range of thenative animals has been greatly reduced, and they havebeen unceasingly destroyed by man. Formerly the elk,the moose, and the caribou were abundant in the northernpart of the State, but are now all exterminated, while theVirginia deer in many localities is still quite plentiful.Of the carnivorous animals, the couguar, the black bear,two species of lynx, the red and grey foxes, the wolf, otter,fisher, pine marten, mink, and skunk still remain, but thewolf is on the eve of extermination, and the wolverine,never abundant, has perhaps migrated northward. Amongthe rodents the beaver and variable hare are found, but insmall numbers, while rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, field-mice,&c., are still unpleasantly numerous.

Civilization has made but little difference with thereptiles, birds, and fishes. All the birds indigenous to theeastern portion of the continent may probably at timesbe found within the State, though their relative numbersare affected by the removal of the forests. Among thereptiles are seventeen species of snakes, three of which,two rattlesnakes and the copperhead, are venomous. Thefishes include all the species found in the lower lakes, inthe rivers of the temperate portions of the continent, andon the Atlantic coast; and the fisheries constitute animportant element in the revenues and subsistence of thepeople. The streams and lakes of the more elevatedportions contain brook trout in abundance; those of thelower levels are well stocked with bass, pickerel, perch,and other game fish. The salmon, which formerly inhabitedthe Hudson and its tributaries, was long since exterminated;but an effort has been made to restock some of the streams,and, like the German carp recently introduced, it may nowbe reckoned as an inhabitant of the waters of New York.Some of the interior lakes are stocked with a land-lockedsalmon, or lake trout, a valuable and interesting fish. Theoyster industry of the coast has its chief commercial centrein New York city, and an important fraction of the supplyof clams, oysters, lobsters, and sea fish is obtained from theNew York coast.

Flora.—Originally the surface of New York was occupiedby an almost unbroken forest, and, as a consequence of thegeneral fertility of the soil, its topographical diversity,and the range of latitude and longitude, the flora is richand varied. About seventy species of trees are known toinhabit the State, and these include all found in theadjacent portions of the Union and Canada. The mostabundant are oaks, of which there are fifteen species, butwith these mingle five species each of maple, pine, andpoplar, four species of hickory, three each of elm, spruce,and ash, two of willow, cherry, magnolia, and pepperidge,and one each of larch, liriodendron, dogwood, arborvitas, balsam, yew, sycamore, honey locust, sweet gum,locust, butternut, black walnut, chestnut, beech, hornbeam,basswood, sassafras, and mulberry. On the summits ofthe Adirondacks a true alpine vegetation is found, thoughconsisting of but a small number of plants; several of theseexist in no other locality in the United States except themountain summits of Vermont and New Hampshire. Theflowering plants and ferns of New York were studied withmuch care by the late Dr Torrey, and his report uponthem forms two of the series of twenty-three quartovolumes which compose the Report on the Natural Historyof New York. The flowering plants enumerated by DrTorrey amount to 1540 species, to which a few additionshave since been made. The ferns number fifty-fourspecies—more than are found in any other State; the lowerforms of plant life, seaweeds, fungi, lichens, &c., areconstantly supplying new material, and many years will yetbe required for their complete elaboration.

Geology.—The geological structure of New York ismore varied and comprehensive than that of any otherState, since it includes, with perhaps the exception of theJurassic, the entire geological column from the Archaeanto the Tertiary. A tabular view of the relations of therocks of New York may be given as follows:—

Quaternary.		Alluvium, peat, shell-marl, diatomaceous earth.
		Champlain clays.
		Glacial deposits. Till, kames, moraines, erratics.
Tertiary.		Miocene(?). Gay Head group. Eocene.
Cretaceous.		Greensands (?).
		Raritan group. Long and Staten Island clays, with lignite.
Jurassic.		Wanting (?).
Triassic.		Palisadegroup.Sandstones,shale,andtrapofRocklandcounty.
Carboniferous		Coal-measures, wanting.
		Mountain limestone, wanting.
		Waverly group, “White Catskill.”
		Catskill group, “Red Catskill.”
		Chemung group.
Devonian.		Hamilton group. Gardeau shale. Cashaqua shale Genesee shale. Tully limestone. Hamilton shale. Moscow shale. Encrinallimestone. Marcellus shale.
		Corniferous group. Corniferous limestone. Onondaga limestone. Schohariegrit—passagebed.
		Oriskany group. Caudagalli grit. Oriskanysandstone.
Upper Silurian.		Helderberg group. UpperPentameruslimestone. Scutella limestone. Delthyris limestone. Lower Pentamerus limestone. Water lime.
		Salina group. (Local.) “Onondaga salt group.”
		Niagara group. Niagaralimestone. Niagarashale. Clintonlimestone. Clinton shale.
		Medina group. Medina sandstone. Oneidaconglomerate.
LowerSilurian.		Hudson group. HudsonRivershales. Utica shale.
		Trenton group. Trenton limestone. BlackRiverlimestone. Birdseye limestone. Chazy limestone.
		Potsdam group. Calciferoussandrock—passagebed. Potsdam sandstone.
Cambrian.		Taconic group. Rossieslateoreandmarble. Troyslatesandlimestones. “Georgia slates.”
Huronian.		Wanting(?).
Laurentian.		Adirondackgroup. St Lawrence marble. Moriah ophiolite. Mount Marcy norite. Gneiss with magnetite. Highlandsgneisswithmagnetite,&c.

The surface exposures of these rocks can be seen at aglance by reference to the accompanying outline map.

The boundaries of the State enclose an area which onceformed a part of the eastern declivity of the Archæancontinent, of which the Canadian and Adirondackhighlands are the most important representatives. These arecomposed of Laurentian rocks, and are perhaps the oldestportion of the earth's surface. Upon the slope of this oldcontinent the ocean rose and fell in the different geologicalages, cutting away the shore by its waves in its advance,and spreading the debris in sheets of sand and gravel—oldsea beaches. During long-continued periods of submergenceorganic sediments, composed of the hard parts ofmarine animals, accumulated over the sea bottom. In theprocess of emergence the shallowing and retreating seaspread over its deep water deposits mixed sediments, thefiner wash of the land and organic material, carbonaceousor calcareous. When indurated, these three kinds ofdeposits became (1) sandstones or conglomerates, (2)limestones, (3) shales or earthy limestones. During the intervalsof emergence the surface was more or less eroded, andthe elevations gave obliquity to the planes of deposition,so that in each invasion of the sea it deposited its roundof sediments unconformably upon the older ones. Therepeated submergences which have here left their recorddid not cover the same area, but overlapped in such away that the succession of deposits is easily made out,—thedifferent groups which we call geological systems beingseparable by unconformability along the planes of contact,by lithological characters which are faithful records ofconditions of deposition, and by differences exhibited intheir fossils, for in the long intervals which separatedthese inundations the life of sea and land was completelyand repeatedly revolutionized.

The processes described above went on through theCambrian, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous ages,forming on the south shore of the Laurentian continentthe most complete and consecutive record of Palæozoic timeof which we have any knowledge. Then the strata alonga line passing south-westerly through eastern New Yorkwere raised in a series of folds which we call the AlleghanyMountains, and at this time all the interval between theAtlantic and the Mississippi was elevated above the ocean.There it has since remained, the sea rising and fallingupon its margin, and leaving its marks, but neversubmerging the interior. The geological record wascontinued by minor contributions to the land along theAtlantic coast during the Triassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary,and Quaternary ages, and by the grinding andtransporting action of glaciers which once covered the entiresurface of the State.

Previous to the elevation of the Alleghanies the sheetsof Palæozoic rocks formed a littoral plain sloping gentlysouthward from the Archæan continent. But in theformation of this mountain belt the country traversed bythe southern line of the State was left with a surfaceinclination northward, and between the Alleghanies andthe Canadian and Adirondack highlands a broad valleywas formed which became the channel of drainage for agreat interior area. Through this valley flowed a largeriver which reached the sea at or near New York island.From the Carboniferous age to the Ice period this was thecourse of the drainage of the interior, and thus was formedthe great water-gap between the Helderberg and AdirondackMountains, the gate of the continent, through whichthe tide of migration has flowed from the seaboard intothe Mississippi valley, and where the canal and railroadlines have been constructed which are the great arteries ofcommerce.

During portions of the Tertiary age perhaps the whole,but certainly the eastern margin, of the continent stoodmany hundred feet above its present level. The drainageof the interior flowed freely and rapidly through thechannel which has been described, until that part of itwhich lies within the State was cut below the presentsea-level, and the great river, which as a whole has never beennamed, but of which the Hudson, the Niagara, the Detroit,and the St Mary's are representatives, reached the ocean80 miles south and east of New York harbour, for itschannel may be traced to that point on the sea bottom,and its mouth was 600 feet below its present one.By a subsequent depression of the land or rise in theocean-level the sea covered much of its old shore, and filledthe channels cut by subaerial erosion; the Hudson becamean arm of the sea, and the labyrinth of tideways wasformed which are such a marked feature of the coast,and such important auxiliaries to New York harbour.During the Ice period important changes were made inthe topography of the State,—by local glaciers in itsadvent and decline, by the great ice sheet at its climax,—thefirst perhaps increasing topographical variety, thesecond producing monotony by grinding down and roundingover asperities, and filling depressions with thedebris.

The basins of the great lakes which border New York,—Ontario,Erie, and Champlain,—and of the peculiarelongated lakes of the interior, are largely the work ofglaciers, which broadened and perhaps deepened riverchannels, and dammed them up with moraines. Whenthe glaciers retreated from the area of New York many ofthe old channels of drainage were left partially orcompletely filled, and the flow of surface water took in somecases new directions. Among the obstructed channels wasthat of the Hudson west of Albany, filled by the Ontarioglacier. By this cause the great river flowing from theinterior was deflected from its ancient course and found aline of lowest levels leading from the north-east instead ofthat from the south-east corner of the Ontario valley. Inthis way the St Lawrence was made the outlet of theinterior basin, and the Mohawk dwindled to a local drainingstream. Long Island Sound and part of Long Islanditself should also be classed among the products of glacialaction, the Sound having been scooped out by the greatglacier when it left the more resistant ledges of crystallinerocks which occupy south-eastern New York andConnecticut, and plunged into the softer Cretaceous andTertiary beds which formed the littoral plain that borderedthe continent,—the hills of the island being covered, andin part composed of loose material transported by theglacier and deposited along its edge.

Minerals.—The mineral resources of New York, thoughless varied than those of some other States, are still ofgreat importance. The most valuable of these are extensivedeposits of iron ore, viz.:—(1) magnetite, found ingreat abundance in the Adirondack region, and in Putnam,Orange, and Rockland counties; (2) hæmatite, mined inthe vicinity of Rossie (St Lawrence county), Clinton(Oneida county), and elsewhere; (3) limonite, largelyworked on Staten Island, and at Amenia, Sharon, &c., onthe line of the New York and Harlem Railroad; (4)siderite, mined at Hyde Park on the Hudson. Theproduction of ore from these mines in 1879 was 1,239,759tons, valued at $3,499,132; and New York is surpassed inthe quantity of iron produced by Michigan and Pennsylvaniaonly.

The quarries of New York are numerous, and theyfurnish a great variety of products:—granite in theAdirondacks and along the Hudson; roofing slate inWashington county; white marble in Westchester and StLawrence counties; red marble at Warwick, Orange county;black marble at Glenn's Falls; verde antique at Moriahand Thurman. Sandstone comes from Potsdam, Medina,and various other localities; shell-limestone from Lockportand Hudson; excellent flagging from Kingston on theHudson; and paving stone from the trap of the Palisades.In 1880 the quarries of New York numbered two hundredand fifty-one, and the value of their product was $1,261,495.A large amount of hydraulic cement is supplied from thequarries at Rondout (Ulster county), Manlius (Onondagacounty), and Akron near Buffalo; also gypsum from thevicinity of Syracuse. The deposits of these substances arevery extensive, and their production could be increasedindefinitely. Another item of importance among themineral resources of the State is the salt produced fromthe salt-wells at Syracuse; these have been worked formany years, and the present annual product is 10,997,408bushels, having a value of $1,374,666. In south-westernNew York gas and oil springs are numerous, and atFredonia the gas has been used in lighting houses for halfa century. Recent discoveries show that the petroleumfields of Pennsylvania extend into New York, and it isprobable that petroleum will soon claim a place among themineral products of the State.

The Amboy clays of New Jersey extend across Staten andLong Islands. With further investigation they may provevaluable in the one State as in the other. (J. S. N.*)

History.—Recent investigations have added little to the knowledgeof the prehistoric period of the territory known as the Middle States.The bias of scientific opinion seems to be that the earthworks,palisades, and piles of stone found in the region bounded by theSt. Lawrence on the north and watered by the Delaware, theSusquehanna, the Alleghany, and their tributaries are of an originmuch more recent than the mound system of the Mississippi andthe Ohio, and are the remains of a people intermediate between theaboriginal race and the Indians found on the soil by the firstEuropean discoverers and explorers. The latter found the easternslope of the continent under the domination of the Iroquois tribes.John Smith met with them on the north waters of Chesapeake Bayin 1607, and Hudson found them in 1609 on the banks of the riverto which he gave his name. The chief seat of this powerful nation,whose sway was recognized from the St Lawrence to the Tennesseeand from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, was in the wide and fertileregion of western and northern New York. Forming permanentsettlements about the headwaters of the streams which gave thempassage to the heart of the country, they organized the politicalleague or confederacy known as the Five Nations. These were thetribes of Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Oneidas.They took the name of “Konoshioni,” or People of the Long House,by which they designated the territory occupied by them, extendingwest from the Hudson at Albany to the foot of the greatlakes, a distance of about 325 miles. There is a tradition in one ofthe tribes that the confederation was formed four years beforeHudson's arrival, which would fix the date at 1605. On the otherhand, a missionary resident among them as early as 1742 wasinformed by a principal chief that the confederacy was establishedone age (lifetime) before the white people came into the country,which, in view of the thoroughness of their organizations at thetime the whites first came into immediate contact with them, seemsnot improbable. In 1609 Champlain, while accompanying a warparty of Hurons and Algonquins on an expedition against theIroquois, fell in with the enemy on the lake to which he gave hisname. European firearms, with which the Iroquois then madefirst acquaintance, turned the scale of victory against them. Theinterference of the French aroused in the formidable confederacy aspirit of enmity which, relentlessly nourished, finally arrested theprogress of French colonization and French power in Canada, andlater secured the triumph of the English arms. Pursuing hisexplorations, Champlain in 1615 again accompanied a hostile expeditionof his allies, penetrated to the very seat of the Iroquois power, andbesieged their fortified village or castle, but was compelled to retreatafter an ineffectual attempt to storm or fire the stockade. Thuswithin a few years after Hudson's voyage the French had discoveredthe great lakes and explored the river which separate the territoriesof New York from Canada. The Iroquois sought an alliance withthe Dutch as a counterpoise to that of their Algonquin enemieswith the French. A formal treaty (the covenant of Corlear)made in 1617 with the Amsterdam Company was faithfully observedon both sides. By the name of Corlear (a Dutchman in highhonour with them) the Iroquois always addressed the governorsof New York in their treaties. Tradition alleges that this firsttreaty was made at the mouth of the Tawasentha, the presentsite of the city of Albany. In 1664 a treaty made by Cartwrightat Fort Orange with the Iroquois sachems secured similar advantagesto the English. In 1688 this friendship was confirmed at aconference held at Albany between the chiefs of the Five Nationsand Governor Andros, and again confirmed in 1689 after the accessionof King William; it continued unbroken until 1775. Compelledto choose between the revolted colonists and their ancient ally, theIroquois held fast to the “covenant chain” with the Englishcrown. The confederacy was at the height of its power about theyear 1700. In 1715 they were joined by the Tuscaroras, driven outfrom North Carolina, and were afterwards known as the Six Nations.Until the conquest of Canada by the English in 1763 they were inconstant struggle with their French neighbours. The Americanrevolution proved fatal to them. In 1779 their towns were burned,their orchards and stores of grain destroyed. At this time theircivilization was at its height, their houses were of frame, some ofelegant construction, their gardens, orchards, and farm landsextensive and abundantly supplied with fruit. From this terrible

The assembly which James had abolished in 1686 was reestablished,and in May declared the rights and privileges of the people,reaffirming the principles of the repealed charter of liberties ofOctober 30, 1683; but religious liberty was curtailed and the Test Actput in force as to Roman Catholics. In 1697 the lords of trade, ina formal report, protested against the Act declaratory of the rightsand privileges of the people of the province of New York; and theinstructions of the king to Lord Bellomont, the newly appointedgovernor, were sharply restrictive of the rights claimed as to courtsand assemblies. The government was to be ruled as a province bya governor and council,—the governor having power to institutecourts, appoint judges, disburse the revenues, veto all laws, andprorogue or dissolve the assembly at pleasure. The provincial legalauthorities protested at once against this excess of prerogative.Thenceforth the political history of the province records onecontinued struggle between the royal governors and the general

assembly,—the assembly withholding money grants, and the governorsexercising the power to dissolve it at will. The chief concernof the province was the defence of the northern frontier. Thequartering of British troops became a source of constant irritationbetween the people and the officers, and the need of money by theauthorities caused as severe a struggle between the governors andthe assembly. The conquest of Canada in 1763 closed the longcontest in which New York troops were constantly engaged. Thewar left a heavy burden upon Great Britain, a part of whichparliament attempted to shift to the shoulders of the colonies. Ageneral congress of the colonies held in New York in 1765 protestedagainst the Stamp Act and other oppressive ordinances, and theywere in part repealed. But parliament maintained the principleupon which the legislation was based, the supremacy of parliamentand its right to tax the colonies without their representation orconsent. In 1769 the total exports of the province amounted to£246,522. During this long political agitation New York, the mostEnglish of the colonies in her manners and feeling, was in closeharmony with the Whig leaders of England. She firmly adhered tothat principle of the sovereignty of the people which she hadinscribed on her ancient charter of liberties. Largely dependentupon commerce, she was the first to recommend a non-importationof English merchandise as a measure of retaliation against GreatBritain, and she was first also to invite a general congress of all thecolonies. On the breaking out of hostilities, New York immediatelyjoined the patriot cause; the English authority was overthrown,and the government passed to a provincial congress. In May 1775,Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, which commanded LakesChamplain and George, and secured the northern frontier, werecaptured by the Americans. New York city became the headquartersof the continental army under command of General Washington.On July 9, 1776, the provincial congress reassembled at White Plains,and formally took the name of the representatives of the State ofNew York. The same day they proclaimed their adhesion to theDeclaration of Independence. The defeat of the Americans on LongIsland, 27th August 1776, was followed by the abandonment of thecity, September 15, the army of Washington retiring to the highground at the northern end of the island. Next day a conflicttook place between the advanced troops where Manhattanville nowstands. The movement of Howe to White Plains, and hissubsequent successful operations, compelled the withdrawal of theAmericans to New Jersey. In 1777 the advance of Burgoyne fromCanada was checked at Saratoga and his entire army captured; adiversion attempted by St Leger by way of the Mohawk was likewiseunsuccessful. An attempt of Clinton to aid Burgoyne, in whichhe captured the forts at the entrance to the Hudson Highlands,failed; West Point continued to command the passage of this importantline of communication. On April 20, 1777, the State assemblyadopted the first constitution. General George Clinton was electedgovernor, and held the office till the close of the war. In 1779(July 16) Stony Point was captured by the Americans. In 1780 thefailure of Arnold's treason put an end to the schemes of the Britishto command the river. The only other action of importance on thesoil of the State was the punishment of the Indians who hadaided Sir John Johnson in his incursions. Sullivan with 3000men penetrated to the heart of the Seneca country and destroyedthe towns. In the summer of 1781 Rochambeau with French troopsmade a junction with Washington in Westchester county, and NewYork city was threatened by the allied forces. News of the approachof the fleet of De Grasse to Chesapeake Bay caused a transfer toVirginia of the military operations. On the conclusion of the warNew York was evacuated, November 25, 1783. Freed from armedoccupation, and its seaport regained, the State made rapid progress.Its natural advantages, which the war disclosed, attracted settlersfrom other States, and the western lands were quickly taken up. In1788 (July 26) New York adopted the Federal constitution, becamethe most important member of the national union, and receivedpopularly the name of the Empire State. The seat of governmentwas transferred from New York city to Albany in 1797. Theprogress of the State met with no interruption until the war with GreatBritain in 1812, when its northern frontier became the seat of operationsby land and water. The treaty of Ghent put an end to thewar, and important schemes for the development of the internalnavigation to bring the products of the State to tidal water wererapidly consummated. Steamboat navigation began on the Hudsonin 1807, and the canal system was perfected in 1825 in the completionof the Erie Canal, which opened the country from the lakes tothe sea. This important artery of commerce has been recently freedfrom toll by popular vote. The railroad system is still more perfect:great lines traverse the State from its eastern to its westernextremity, and a network of minor lines connects every town andvillage of any importance in the State with the central arteries.

Progress of Settlement.—At the close of the Dutch period thesettlement of that part of New Netherland which afterwardsbecame New York was confined to Manhattan, Long, and StatenIslands, and the banks of the Hudson. Westward of these therewere small trading stations on the line of the Mohawk and other

water carriages. Early in the last century the admirable naturalchannel of communication which by the Mohawk river and WoodCreek connects the Hudson with the great lakes attracted immigration.The fertile valley of the Mohawk was the first occupied. Asettlement was made there about 1722 by a colony from thePalatinate, who constituted almost the entire population until the closeof the Revolution. In 1756 there were only ten county divisionsin the province, of which but two were west of the Hudson. At thetime of the Revolution there were fourteen counties, the mostwesterly of which lay on the sides of the Mohawk, about 40 milesfrom Albany. The inhabitants were at this time Dutch, French,English, Scotch, and Irish. The war brought the extreme richnessof the western lands to the notice of the troops, and they in turninformed the people. After the war settlements spread withrapidity. The State of New York ceding to Massachusetts about10,000 square miles of territory, there was before 1800 a largeimmigration from New England, which extended itself over theinterior of the State to its western boundary. This was essentiallyan agricultural population. The military lands set apart asbounties during the war, to the amount of 180,000 acres, wererapidly taken up by the immigrants who flowed into the westerncountry like a torrent, opening roads and founding villages andtowns. Between 1784 and 1800 two cities, three large villages, andnumerous smaller settlements were founded, and the population ofthe State doubled in numbers. The foreign immigration of the lastforty years has chiefly settled on the lines of the great railroads,which present an almost unbroken chain of industrial cities.

Constitution.—The fundamental constitution of the State adoptedin 1777 was in its main features after the English model: a chiefexecutive and two separate legislative chambers; justice administeredthrough local county courts, a probate judiciary, a high commonlaw tribunal called the supreme court, side by side with acourt of chancery; final appellate jurisdiction in law and equityvested in the State senate. This first constitution of the Statedeclared the people to be the only source of political power. Thesecret ballot insured the independence of the vote. Religiousliberty to all was absolutely secured. In 1821 a new conventiongreatly simplified the machinery of administration. Under thisnew constitution the people took to themselves a large part of thepowers before delegated to the assembly. The elective franchisewas extended by a removal of freehold qualification. In 1846 a newconstitution made radical changes in the framework of government.The elective franchise was further extended by diminution of residencequalification; elective districts were established on the basisof population, and shifted with the varying censuses. The electiveprinciple, before confined to part of the executive and legislativeofficers, was applied also to the judiciary. A court of appeals of lastresort was instituted. Local tribunals were invested with the powersand jurisdictions of the supreme court of common law and of thecourt of chancery. The separation of the legal and political departmentsof government was complete. The question was againsubmitted to the people in 1873, and the election of the judiciarymaintained by a large majority. Some slight amendments have been sincemade. The constitution, as finally matured, completely carries outthe principle of a government of the people by its own directly chosenagencies. Elective restrictions upon negroes and mulattoes wereremoved by degrees. Slavery was gradually abolished under an Actpassed in 1799. In 1811 the only discrimination was the requirementof a certificate of freedom. The constitution of 1821 imposedboth a residence and a freehold qualification, restrictions whichremained until removed in 1870 by the fifteenth amendment tothe Federal constitution, when suffrage to males became absolutelyfree in the State. The constitution of 1777 forbade Acts ofAttainder after the close of the war, and provided that no Actshould work corruption of blood. Primogeniture and entail werefor ever abolished. That of 1846 did away with all feudal tenuresof every description. Imprisonment for debt, before limited bystatute so far as females were concerned to sums over $50, wasentirely abolished in 1831. Married women were secured in theirseparate rights to real and personal property by statute in 1848.Imprisonment of witnesses was put an end to by Act of 1882.

Education.—The grant of the West India Company (1629) to theplanters of New Netherland required the establishment of a school,and in 1644 the burgomasters of New Amsterdam made a municipalprovision for school purposes in the colony; but this provednominal, and instruction received little attention until after thearrival of Stuyvesant, when an academy and classical school wasestablished (1659). At the conquest in 1664 the English found thisinstitution in high repute, and in addition three public schools anda number of private Dutch schools in the city alone. The academyor Latin school was continued by the English authorities for a fewyears, but the Dutch schools received no Government contribution.In 1702 a free grammar school was established by Act of Assembly.In 1710 a school was founded by Trinity church, and similarprovisions by other religious denominations followed. In 1754 King'sCollege (reorganized in 1784 as Columbia) was established by charter.Here many of the men who became distinguished in the

Correction.—The superintendent of prisons reported the numberof convicts confined 30th September 1882 at 2937, the totalexpenses at $415,662.10, and the earnings at $421,916.95, showing asurplus of $6254.85. The strong and increasing jealousy of artisanshas led to an abandonment of some of the most profitable kinds ofconvict labour.

Wealth and Taxation.—The aggregate assessed valuation of thewealth of the State was in 1882 $2,821,549,963, of which amount$2,482,012,682 was real and $339,537,281 personal. The amountof taxation was $47,573,820.07, of which $3,757,971.47 was State,$30,429,458.62 county, $10,324,339.16 city, town, and village,equal to 1.709 cents on one dollar ($1) valuation.

Finances.—The fiscal affairs of the State have been managedon correct principles, and its credit has been maintained unimpaired.To this its payment of the interest and principal of its bonds incoin during the temporary suspensions of specie payment whichpreceded the civil war and the long national suspension whichfollowed its outbreak greatly contributed. The total funded debt ofthe State, 30th September 1882, was $6,385,556.30, over 6 millionsof which represents the canal debt. The receipts of the Statetreasury during the fiscal year ending at same period were$17,735,761, and the payments $13,898,198.21, leaving a balance of$3,837,563.38. The rate of taxation for the year 1882 was fixedat 2.45 mills on the dollar, which is estimated to yield a revenueof $6,820,022.29. The revenues of the canals for the year endingSeptember 30, 1882, were $659,970.35, and the expenditure$653,510.01. The canal system is for the future to be maintainedby direct taxation.

Banking.—The bank of New York, chartered in 1791, was thefirst financial institution incorporated in the State. Bankscontinued to be incorporated by special Acts of the legislature until1838, when a general banking law made the business free to allunder certain restrictions. In 1829 a safety fund system wasestablished to secure the circulation of the banks contributing to it,and commissioners were created to apply its provisions, but theunequal operation and insufficiency of the system brought aboutit* abolition in 1843, and supervision was entrusted to thecomptroller of the State. In 1851 a banking department was created.The Act of the United States of 1865, to provide a national currency,in its requirement of a deposit of United States bonds to secure thecirculation issued to the banks by the Government made a radicalchange in the entire banking system. If the policy of reduction ofthe debt of the United States be continued, some other form ofsecurity must be devised to take the place of the bonds of theUnited States. In 1867 the State passed an Act enabling nationalbanking associations to become State banking associations. Thenational tax of 10 per cent, being in effect prohibitory on otherthan national bank circulation, the State banks are banks ofdiscount and deposit only. On the 16th December 1882 there wereseventy-seven banks in operation under this Act. Their capitalwas $19,455,700. The mass of the banking business of the Stateis done by the national banks, of which there were on December 30,1882, 307, with a capital of $86,313,692. Their deposits at same datewere $355,673,215.80, their loans and discounts $336,269,003.87,and their issues of national bank circulation amounted to$45,979,914, secured by United States bonds, deposited with thecomptroller of the currency at Washington, to the amount of$52,217,050. They held in specie $54,186,128.94, and in legaltender notes of the United States $18,192,201. The first bank forsavings in the State was incorporated in 1819, since which timethese beneficent institutions have vastly increased. On the 1stJanuary 1883 they numbered 127, holding for 1,095,971 depositorsthe sum of $412,147,213. They are incorporated by special Actsof the legislature, and the provisions for the security of theirinvestment are very stringent. Trust companies, of which thereare several, are also incorporated by special Act, and the securityof their depositors is guaranteed by deposits of public stocks or cashwith the banking department of the State. On the 1st October1882 there were fourteen corporations for the safe keeping andguardianship of personal property, with a capital of $2,676,900.

Agriculture.—New York is the third State of the Union in thenumber of farms, and second in their value. The total number ofacres in farms in 1880 was 23,780,754, of which 17,717,862 acreswere improved lands. The number of farms was 241,058, value$1,056,176,741. The live stock included 610,358 horses, 5072mules and asses, 39,633 working oxen, 1,437,855 milch cows,862,233 other cattle, 1,715,180 sheep, 751,907 swine. The farmproducts were—oats, 37,575,506 bushels; Indian corn, 25,690,156;wheat, 11,587,766; barley, 7,792,062; rye, 2,634,690;buckwheat, 4,461,200; potatoes, 33,644,807; hay, 5,240,563 tons;hops, 21,628,931 ℔; tobacco, 6,481,431 ℔; milk (sold or sent tobutter and cheese factories), 231,965,533 gallons; butter (made onfarms), 111,922,423 ℔; cheese (made on farms), 8,362,590 ℔;wool, 8,827,195 ℔. The estimated value of all farm productionsby the census of 1880 was $178,025,695.

Manufactures.—New York is the first manufacturing State inthe Union, and in the last decade the value produced has increasednearly 35 per cent. In 1880 there were in the State 42,739establishments, employing a capital of $514,246,575 and 531,533hands. The amount paid in wages was $198,634,029; formaterials, $679,612,545. The products were valued at $1,080,696,596.

Shipbuilding.—The vessels of all classes built in the State duringthe fiscal year ending 30th June 1882 numbered 1371, aggregating282,269 tons. Of these there were 668 sailing vessels of 118,798tons, 502 steamers of 121,942 tons, 68 canal boats, and 135 barges.

Fisheries.—The chief fishing industry is the taking of menhaden,in value (1880) $1,114,158, and the raising of oysters, value in 1880$1,577,050, other fisheries $1,689,357. The total number of handsemployed in all branches in 1880 was 7266, the amount of capital$2,629,585, and of product $4,380,565; the number of vesselsemployed was 541, measuring 11,583 tons, valued at $777,600.

Commerce.—New York, owing to its magnificent seaport and itsadmirable land and water communication, enjoys a large proportionof the national trade. In 1882 the State had in exports andimports of merchandize, including specie and bullion, the sum of$894,430,636, or 56¼ per cent. of the trade of the United States. Ofthe imports it received and distributed $499,928,774, and it exported$394,501,862. The amount of internal trade can only be estimatedby the value of the tonnage moved. In the year ending 30thSeptember 1882 the arrivals at tide water were 3,068,152 tons, andthe internal movement reached 1,361,268, the total value of theproperty transported being $147,918,907. The freight carried onrailroads amounted to 47,350,174 tons, which at the same rate ofvaluation as that given for canal traffic, $35 per ton, may be setdown at $l,657,256,090 a total value transported of $1,805,174,997.

The value of the freight carried through the Sound, the Hudsonriver, and the lakes may be estimated at $250,000,000, which wouldgive an aggregate of over $2,000,000,000. Deducting from thisgross amount 900 millions, the value of its foreign commerce(imports and exports), the sum of 1000 millions is arrived at asan approximate valuation of the internal trade of the State.

Conveyance.—On the 30th September 1882 there were 326 steamand 81 horse railroads incorporated under the laws of the State.The paid up capital stock of the steam roads amounted to$623,772,211.67 (of which for this State $397,386,453.21), and ofthe horse roads to $24,068,248.35. The steam roads carried66,691,562 passengers; two elevated roads in New York city carried86,361,029, and the horse roads 277,171,345 passengers. The totalof miles of steam roads built and owned by New York companieswas 10,058, of which 6641 were in New York State. There aretwelve canals, of which the Erie is the principal. The total movementon all reached 5,467,423 tons in 1882.

Population.—New York has the largest population of any of theStates. From official sources the population of the province wasgiven in 1698 at 18,067; in 1703 at 20,665; in 1723, 40,564; in1731, 50,824; in 1737, 60,437; in 1749, 73,448; in 1756, 96,790;in 1771, 163,337. By the first United States census of 1790 at340,120; in 1800, 589,051; in 1810, 959,049; in 1820, 1,372,111;in 1830, 1,918,608; in 1840, 2,428,921; in 1850, 3,097,394; in1860, 3,880,735; in 1870, 4,382,759.

The total population by the census of 1880 was 5,082,871(2,505,322 males, 2,577,549 females); of these 3,871,492 werenative born. The race division was—whites, 5,016,022; coloured,65,104; Chinese and Japanese, 926; Indians, 819.^[2] There are 59cities having each a population of over 4000, the principal beingNew York, 1,206,299; Brooklyn, 566,663; Buffalo, 155,134; Albany,the State capital, 90,758; Rochester, 89,366; Troy, 56,747;Syracuse, 51,792; Utica, 33,914; Auburn, 21,924; Oswego, 21,116;Elmira, 20,541; Poughkeepsie, 20,207. There were engaged inagriculture 377,460 persons; in professional and personal service,537,897; in trade and transportation, 339,419; and in manufacturesand mechanical and mining industries, 629,869. Thepopulation averaged 106.74 persons to the square mile, and occupied772,512 dwellings. (J. A. S.*)

1. ↑ In 1881-82, of 1723 Indian children of school age reported, 1169 attendedschool. The State pays $8500 for their education.
2. ↑ This includes only Indians subject to taxation.

II. New York City.

Plates XII., XIII.NEW YORK, the principal city of the United States inpoint of wealth and population, and, next to London, themost important commercial and financial centre in theworld, lies mainly on Manhattan Island, which is situatedat the upper end of New York Bay, between theHudson River and East River, on the west and east respectively,and the Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek,small connecting tide-ways which separate it from themainland on the north-east and north. The legal limitsof the municipality also include on the northern side aportion of the mainland which formerly constituted thetowns of Morrisania, West Farms, and Kingsbridge, theboundary on the N. being the city of Yonkers and onthe E. the Bronx and East Rivers, containing in all 41½square miles, or 26,500 acres, of which Manhattan Islandmakes 22 square miles, or 14,000 acres. They alsocontain the small islands in the East River and New York Bayknown as North Brother's, Ward's, Randall's, Blackwell's,Governor's, Bedloe's, Ellis, and the Oyster Islands. Thecity-hall stands in 40° 42' 43" N. lat. and 74° 0' 3" W.^[1]long., and is about 18 miles distant from the ocean,which is reached through the upper and lower bay,together constituting a harbour of the first order. Theupper bay has an area of 14 square miles and the lowerbay of 88 square miles of safe anchorage. The shipchannels have from 21 to 32 feet and from 27 to 39feet of water according to the state of the tide. TheHudson and East Rivers also afford the city 13¼ squaremiles of good anchorage. The tide rises and falls on theaverage 43 inches. Manhattan Island, as well as theadjacent country to the north and east, is composed mainlyof rocks, chiefly gneiss and mica schist, with heavy intercalated beds of coarse-grained dolomitic marble and thinnerlayers of serpentine. These rocks have been usuallysupposed to be Lower Silurian, but Professor Newberry holdsthat they have so great a similarity to some portions of theLaurentian range in Canada that it is difficult to resist theconviction that they are of the same period. The deeptroughs through which the Hudson and East Rivers nowfind their way through New York harbour to the ocean aresupposed by the same geologist to have been excavatedin the late Tertiary period, in which Manhattan Islandand the other islands in New York Bay stood much higherthan they do now, when Long Island did not exist, and agreat sandy plain extended beyond the Jersey coast some80 miles seaward. Manhattan Island, for half its lengthfrom the southern point, slopes on each side from a centralridge. On the upper half of the island the ground risesprecipitously from the Hudson River in a narrow line ofhill, which again, on the eastern side, sinks rapidly into aplain bordering on the Harlem and East Rivers, and knownas Harlem Flats. The surface is throughout rocky, withthe exception of this plain, and levelling on a great scalehas been necessary in laying out streets. The districtbeyond the Harlem river, which extends as far north asthe city of Yonkers, is traversed by lines of rocky hillrunning north and south, and still thickly wooded. Theoriginal settlement out of which New York has grownwas made on the southernmost point of the island, and ithas, since the beginning of the 18th century, spread duenorth and from river to river.

The street called Broadway runs for nearly 3 milesalong the crest of the island, forming for that distancethe central thoroughfare from which streets spread withsome regularity to the water on each side. The leadingthoroughfaresoriginally followedthe line of the shore,along which theearliest buildings werechiefly erected, thecentral ridge beingthe last to be occupied,until the cityreached what is nowknown as Wall Street,the site of which wasmarked by a rampartand stockade extendingfrom river to riveracross the island.Within this space thestreets were laid outeither as conveniencedictated or as oldpathways suggested,without any generaldesign or any attentionto symmetry, and were named, for the most part, afterprominent settlers. The first regular official survey of thecity, tracing the line of the streets, was made in 1656,when Wall Street was its northern limit. In 1807 thepresent plan of the city was adopted, with its broadlongitudinal avenues crossed by side streets at right angles,beginning at a point about two miles from the Batteryand running the whole length of the island. The erectionof buildings along these streets has led to the levelling ofthe region below the Central Park, but in the park thevaried outline which once characterized the whole islandis still retained. The precipitous banks of the Hudsonriver at the upper end have also compelled a treatmentin which the original configuration of the ground is preserved, and the streets and roadways are adapted to it.The city in its growth northward absorbed several suburbanvillages known as Greenwich, Harlem, Manhattanville,Fort Washington, Morrisania, and Kingsbridge.

General Aspect.—The appearance of New York everywherebut in the leading thoroughfares is usuallydisappointing to strangers. The pavement of all the streets,except Broadway and Fifth Avenue, is bad, and the streetcleaning in all but the principal streets is very defective.The lower part of the city, which is the centre of trade, isgenerally well kept, and contains a large number ofimposing buildings. Wall Street in particular, which is now,after Lombard Street, the most important haunt ofmoneyed men in the world, has several banks of effectivearchitecture, together with the United States customhouse;while Broad Street, which runs off from it at rightangles, besides having the stock exchange, is being rapidlyoccupied at its upper end by handsome buildings of vastproportions intended for the offices of merchants andbankers. After the city had spread beyond Wall Street,the well-to-do portion of the population and the leadingretailers seem to have clung to Broadway as the great lineof traffic and trade. For one hundred years the wealthyresidents built their houses along it, or, if in the streetsrunning off from it at right angles, as near it as possible;and the shops followed them up closely. As populationgrew during this period the private dwellings of the betterclass simply moved up farther on Broadway and theadjacent streets, leaving the old houses to be convertedinto shops. The farther from Broadway, and the nearerthe river on either side, the cheaper land was, and thepoorer the class of houses which sprang up on it. Thisfondness for Broadway in a great degree explains theaspect of the city. About a mile and a half from theBattery, or southernmost point of the island, the crossstreets which up to this line are mostly named after localnotables of the colonial period, become designated bynumbers, and are separated by equal intervals, known as“blocks,” of which twenty form a mile. Up to EighthStreet, Broadway divides the streets which cross it intoeast and west. After Eighth Street, Fifth Avenue, whichbegins at a handsome square, known as the WashingtonSquare, lying a short distance west of Broadway, becomesthe dividing line, and continues to be so out to the HarlemRiver, a distance of 8 miles. Broadway at FourteenthStreet runs into Union Square, which contains statues ofWashington (equestrian), La Fayette, and Lincoln, and issurrounded by large shops; it then trends westerlytowards the Hudson River, and thus crosses Fifth Avenue(which runs due north) at Twenty-Third Street, where itenters Madison Square, another open space, on the westside of which are clustered several of the largest hotels inthe city. Fifth Avenue has played for the last fortyyears the same part, as the fashionable street, whichBroadway played in the preceding period. It was longthe ambition of wealthy men to live in it. It is linedfrom Washington Square to the Central Park, a distanceof 3 miles, with costly houses, mostly of brown stone andred brick, without much architectural pretension, andproducing from the preponderance of the brown stone asomewhat monotonous effect, but perhaps unequalledanywhere as the indication of private wealth. Fashion haslong permitted, and of late has encouraged, resort to theside streets as places of abode, but the rule is neverthelesstolerably rigid that one must not go beyond FourthAvenue, two blocks on the east side, or Sixth Avenue, oneblock on the west side, if one wishes to live in a goodquarter. Within the district thus bounded the citypresents a clean and orderly appearance, but mainly owingto the exertions of the householders themselves.^[2]

Harbour Defence.—For this the city depends on fortssituated at the western entrance to Long Island Sound, atthe Narrows (a passage between the upper and lowerbays), and in the harbour itself. All these are confessedlypowerless against a fleet armed with modern ordnance.The forts at the entrance of the Sound are Fort Schuyler,situated on Throgg's Neck, and a fort on Willett's Pointon the opposite shore. The defences at the Narrowsconsist of Forts Wadsworth and Tompkins and severaldetached batteries on the Staten Island shore, and of FortHamilton and several batteries on the opposite Long Islandshore. The forts in the bay are small and weak structures,and comprise Fort Columbus, Castle William, and somebatteries, all on Governor's Island, and Fort Gibson onEllis Island. Fort La Fayette, made famous during thewar of the rebellion as a prison, was destroyed by fire in1868, and Bedloe's Island, on which stood Fort Wood, isnow given up for the reception of Bartholdi's statue ofLiberty.

History.—The history of the first Dutch settlementsat Manhattan, and of their transference to England, issketched in the article on New York State. Down tothe Revolution the history of the city is to all intents andpurposes that of the province at large. The populationgrew slowly but steadily, and so did the trade of the place,—theDutch language and influence, however, graduallygiving way to the English. During the Revolution thecity, while containing a large body of loyalists, sharedin the main in the feelings and opinions of the rest ofthe country, but was cut off from active participation inthe struggle by being occupied at a very early period ofthe war by the British troops, and it was the scene of theirfinal departure from American soil on November 25, 1782.Since the Revolution its history has been principally therecord of an enormous material growth, the nature andextent of which are described in other parts of this article.It was the capital of the State of New York from 1784 to1797, though the legislature met several times during thisperiod at Albany and Poughkeepsie. From 1785 to 1790it was the seat of the general Government, and there thefirst inauguration of Washington to the presidency occurredon the 30th of April 1789.

Population.—The population of New York, in spite ofthe great attractions of the site, increased very slowly forthe first century after its settlement. When the Revolutionbegan it amounted to less than 22,000, and the city stoodfar below Boston and Philadelphia in importance. It was,too, dominated to a degree unknown in the other NorthernStates by the landowners whose estates lined the Hudsonas far up as Albany, and who played the leading part insociety and politics. The original constitution of colonialsociety was thoroughly aristocratic, and it wasmaintained almost intact until after the Revolution, the largelanded estates along the Hudson being still held by thedescendants of the original Dutch grantees, and let ontenures which were essentially feudal in their character.In spite of the large influx of settlers from New Englandand other parts of the country, the Revolution foundthe Dutch elements in New York society still strong, ifnot dominant, and the political ascendency of theterritorial families on the Hudson on the whole but littlediminished. After the Revolution the growth of the citypopulation became more rapid, but it did not reach100,000 until 1815, nor 160,000 until 1825. From thisdate it grew by leaps and bounds until it reached, in1880, 1,206,299,^[3] although a large body of persons whosebusiness lies in New York reside in Brooklyn or JerseyCity, on the other side of the East and Hudson Riversrespectively, or in the lesser suburbs, and are not includedin the census return. At the end of 1883 the populationwas estimated at 1,337,325. The impetus which thepopulation received in 1825 was due to the opening ofthe canal connecting the Hudson with Lake Erie, whichmade New York the commercial entrepot for a vast andfertile region such as lay behind no other port on theeastern coast. The tendency of foreign trade toconcentrate at New York, which has since reduced manysmall but once flourishing ports along the Atlantic coast,and has taken away from Boston and Philadelphia a gooddeal of the chief source of their early prosperity, at oncebegan to show itself, and has apparently lost none of itsforce since the railways came into use to supplement orsupersede the canals.

In considering New York as a commercial port, thepopulation of several suburbs within 10 or 15 miles radiusshould be taken along with it. Including only that ofBrooklyn (556,663) and of Jersey City (120,722), thetotal would be 1,883,684. Of the 1,206,299 formingthe population of the municipality of New York proper in1880, 478,670, or nearly one-third, were of foreign birth.Of these 163,482 were Germans and 198,595 Irish,forming together by far the largest and most importantpart of the foreign element. Of the total population,336,137 are males above the voting age, and the femalesexceed the males by about 25,000. In the native Americanpopulation, amounting to 727,629, there are 647,399natives of the State of New York, only 80,330 comingfrom other States. New Jersey furnishes the largestcontingent, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticutfollowing next, though every State and Territory in theUnion contributes something. There are no means ofascertaining the proportion of the inhabitants born withinthe city limits; it is probably smaller than even in Londonor Paris.

The heterogeneous character of the population, however,so largely composed of persons who come from widelydifferent parts of the globe to seek their fortune, whileinfusing great energy into commercial and industrialoperations, has had an unfortunate effect on the municipallife of the place. It has prevented the growth of a healthylocal pride among the successful men of business, many ofwhom labour with the intention of passing their closingyears elsewhere, a sentiment particularly strong among theprosperous New Englanders, whose affections are very aptto be fixed on the place of their birth. The result is that,considering the very large fortunes which have been madein the city during the last century, it has profited butlittle, compared with others in America, by the gifts orendowments of its wealthy men. The same cause hasoperated to some extent to prevent hearty co-operation inmunicipal affairs. The inhabitants of the differentnationalities live much apart, both in politics and in society.The Germans, whose social life is very active, give butlittle attention to local politics, although they form, owingto their intelligence, order, and industry, a very valuableelement in the population. Germans head a good manyof the principal banking and commercial houses. Aconsiderable proportion of those settled in New Yorkare skilled artisans; cabinetmaking and upholstering inparticular are largely in their hands. They supply alsomost of the music of the city, do nearly all its brewingand a considerable portion of its baking, and furnish avery large contingent in the work of all the leadingmanufactures. They supply comparatively few of the domesticsof either sex, or of the manual labourers. Difference oflanguage, combined with the absence of political trainingat home, keeps the Germans from taking a very activepart in politics, except to resist some of the attempts atrestrictive legislation directed against their beer drinkingand Sunday amusem*nts, which the American temperanceadvocates frequently make. As a rule it may be said thatthe prominent Germans in the city, like the Catholic Irish,belong to the Democratic party.

The port of New York is the great gateway forimmigrants coming to the United States. Of the7,892,783 immigrants who have come to the country fromthe years 1855 to 1882 inclusive, 5,169,765 have landedat New York city. The largest number landed there inone year was 476,086 in 1882. Germany sends thegreatest number, Ireland coming next, England third, andSweden fourth. From 1847 to 1881 inclusive theGerman immigrants arriving in New York have numbered2,498,595; the Irish, 2,171,982; the English, 834,328;and the Swedish, 208,505. The total number of immigrantslanded at New York during the years 1858 to 1862 inclusivewas 404,918; from 1863 to 1867 it was 1,009,641;from 1868 to 1872, 1,209,011; from 1873 to 1877,614,219; in 1878 it was 75,347; in 1879, 135,070; in1880, 327,371; in 1881, 455,681; in 1882, 476,086; andin the first six months of 1883 it was 257,635. The Irishemigrants who settle in New York are to a considerableextent a deposit left by the stream of emigration whichenters the country at that port. The more energetic andthoughtful, and those who have any money, push on tothe west; the penniless and the shiftless are apt to staywhere they land, and furnish the city with most of itsunskilled labour, although of late years they have beenexposed to considerable competition from Italians, mainlyfrom southern Italy. The resource of a large number ofthe more pushing is apt to be liquor dealing, whichgenerally brings them influence in ward politics, andsecures recognition from the party leaders as a means ofcommunicating with and controlling the rank and file.The great body of the porters and waiters in the hotels andsecond-class restaurants, of the carters and hackney-coachdrivers, a large proportion of the factory workers, andalmost the entire body of household servants are Irish also,and for the most part a saving and industrious body.

The social life of New York in the earlier days, and, infact, down to 1825, took its tone from the landholdingaristocracy. Social traditions were, however, principallyDutch, and were characterized by the simplicity andfrugality of that people. As the place grew in wealth andpopulation, the ascendency of the old Dutch families wasgradually lost. The successful commercial men who cameto New York from all parts of the country became the reallocal magnates, and business prosperity became the chiefsign and cause of social distinction. This state of thingsstill exists. There is no other city in the United Statesin which money gives a man or woman so much socialweight, and in which it exercises so much influence on themanners and amusem*nts, and meets with so littlecompetition from literary, artistic, or other eminence. Theluxury of domestic life is carried to a degree unequalledin any other city. The entertainments are numerousand costly, and the restaurants, of which Delmonico'sis the chief, have achieved a world-wide fame. Thenumber of horses and equipages has greatly increasedwithin twenty years under the stimulus given by theopening of Central Park, the drives of which on fine afternoonsin April and May and the early part of June presenta scene of great brilliancy. The city is, however, almostcompletely deserted during the summer months by thewealthy, who fly to country houses along the coast fromNew Jersey as far up as the province of New Brunswick,or to the mineral springs of Saratoga, or to Europe.Thirty years ago it was the ambition of rich men to owncountry houses along the Hudson river, the scenery ofwhich possesses great grandeur, but its banks have of latebeen infested by malaria, and for this and other reasonsthe tide of fashion has been turned to the seaside, andmore particularly to Newport in Rhode Island, which isnow a city of marine villas. For people of small meansNew York is slenderly provided with summer entertainments,except such as are afforded by the beauty of thesuburbs and by the many water-side resorts within easyreach on the Hudson, the New Jersey coast, and LongIsland Sound, and especially at Coney Island, which isreally a continuation of the sandy beach that extends allalong the south side of Long Island. Its western extremityis distant from the Battery about 8½ miles in a straightline, and its extreme length is about 5 miles. Since 1874,when capitalists suddenly woke up to the capabilities ofthe spot, a number of favourite resorts have sprung upon the island, with monster hotels, in one of which asmany as four thousand people can dine at once,conveniences for surf-bathing, and a great variety ofamusem*nts. The island is reached by steam and horse cars,by steamboats, and by carriages. The Germans havebeer gardens on a grand scale, both on Manhattan Islandand elsewhere which they frequent in vast numbers.The Irish organize picnics to groves and woods along theHudson and East Rivers, which are let for that purpose.Excursions by water down the harbour and up LongIsland Sound are very numerous. For this species ofamusem*nt there are few cities in the world so wellsituated.

New York has about thirty places of amusem*nt usingscenery, not including a few small variety theatres of littleimportance; of all these the Metropolitan Opera House ismuch the largest. Its stage is 96 feet wide, 76 feet deep,and 120 feet high. There are seventeen outside entrances,six of them 10 feet wide; and the whole structure isfire-proof. The chief foyer is 34 feet wide and 82 feetlong, with a parlour so connected that the foyer can beused as a lecture-room, the parlour giving place for a stage.The seating capacity of the auditorium is about threethousand. Of the other theatres the largest are Miner'sBowery, Miner's Eighth Avenue, Academy of Music, M‘KeeRankin's, Niblo's, Fourteen Street Theatre (Haverly's),Thalia, Criterion, London, Harrigan and Hart's,Cosmopolitan, Fifth Avenue, Star, Twenty-third Street, UnionSquare. Beside the theatres there are two fine concert andlecture-rooms—Steinway Hall and Chickering Hall.

The clubs of New York may be divided into two classes,—thepolitical and social, and the purely social. To theformer belong the Manhattan and the Union League; tothe latter the Century (1847), Harmonie (1852), Knickerbocker(1871), Lotus (1870), New York, St Nicholas,Union (1836), and University (1865). The ManhattanClub (with some 570 members) is the local club of theDemocratic party, founded during the closing years ofthe civil war, and reorganized in 1877. The UnionLeague Club was founded in 1863, in order to give tothe Federal administration during the war the organizedsupport of wealthy and influential men in the city, and ithas been ever since the Republican social organization ofthe city. The Century Club represents literature, art, andthe learned professions, and owns a valuable collection ofpictures and a well-selected library. All the membersof the Harmonie Club speak German. The original planof the Lotus Club looked to a membership of literary menand artists, and members of the musical and dramaticprofessions.

Education.—The Dutch West India Company, which settled theisland of Manhattan, was bound by its charter to provideschoolmasters as well as ministers for its colonists. The companyconsequently maintained schools from the beginning, and private schoolswere also soon established, and drew pupils even from other colonies.When the colony passed into the possession of England, the schoolsof the city still continued in the hands of the Dutch Church andministers, and were supported by them, receiving little or no aidfrom the Government. At a later period, the desire of the new rulersto hasten the substitution of the English for the Dutch language inthe colony led to an attempt by the colonial Government to reserveto itself the appointment of the schoolmasters, but it was notsuccessful. Down to the middle of the 17th century the bulk of thepopulation remained Dutch, and the support and control of theschools remained with the Dutch Church. The only outward signof the growth of English influence during this period was theestablishment of the still existing Trinity school, in 1710, in connexionwith the Anglican Church. About the middle of the century the

Periodical Press.—There is probably nothing in which New Yorkmore nearly occupies the place of a metropolis than in the positionof its periodical press towards that of the rest of the country. SeeNewspapers, supra, p. 434. The modern American newspaper mayindeed be said to have originated in New York, which is naturallythe chief centre for foreign news, as well as the chief financial andcommercial centre, and the chief entrepot of foreign goods. In fact,as early as 1840 it had become plain that any one proposing toaddress the whole country through the press could address it moreeffectively from New York than from any other point. As populationhas spread and other cities have grown in wealth and numbers,New York newspapers have of course lost more or less of their earlysuperiority, but they are still more widely read than any others,and absorb more of whatever journalistic talent there may be in thecountry. In the field of literary and artistic and musical criticismthey are exposed to but little competition, from any quarter. Theperiodical literature of the city is now very large; there is hardlyan interest or shade of opinion, religious or political, which does notpossess a New York organ, as the subjoined table will show:—

Periodicals published in New York City, May 1, 1883.

Churches, Religion, and Charities.—In the absence of officialreturns as to churches and religious denominations, the mosttrustworthy statistics are those of the City Missionary Society,which puts the number of places of religious worship in the city,including halls, chapels, and missions, at 489. Of these, 349 arechurches properly so-called, each with a fixed congregation, and asettled pastor and a building appropriated to its own use. Theyare divided as follows among the various denominations: ProtestantEpiscopal, 72; Roman Catholic, 57; Methodist Episcopal, 48;Presbyterian, 41; Baptist, 38; Jewish synagogues, 25; Lutheran,21; Dutch Reformed, 20; African Methodist Episcopal, 7; UnitedPresbyterian, 6; Congregational, 5; Universalist, 4; Unitarian, 3;Quakers, 2; “miscellaneous,” 23. This last term coversspiritualists and radicals of various shades, who, without having anyfixed creed, or definite object of worship, meet on Sunday forspeculative or ethical discussion.

The Roman Catholic Church lays claim to 500,000 worshippers,or nearly half the population, which is probably a considerableexaggeration, as its hold on the natives is, beyond question, veryslight, and the total foreign population of the city does not reach500,000. The Irish are almost wholly Catholic, as are the majorityof the Germans, and nearly all the French, Italians, and otherpersons of foreign birth. The Catholic increase, too, is derived almost

Municipal Charities.—The municipal charities are in the handsof a department of the city government called the Commissionersof Charities and Correction, consisting of three commissionersappointed by the mayor, who have charge of all prisons for personsawaiting trial, of all city hospitals, almshouses, workhouses, andlunatic asylums, and of the penitentiary and city prisons. Most ofthese institutions are situated on small islands in the East River,known as Blackwell's, Ward's, Randall's, and Hart's Islands, thelast-named containing a municipal industrial school.

Two charities are, however, exempt from the control of thedepartment. One, the House of Refuge on Randall's Island, whichis the property of a private corporation that receives vagrant anddisorderly children, and gets its income partly from the labour ofthe inmates, partly from the proceeds of theatrical licences grantedby the city, and partly from State grants. The other is theJuvenile Asylum, which also is managed by a private association,and partly supported by State grants. The influence of politicalpartisanship on the appointment of the officers under the control ofthe department of charities and correction has been found to resultin such serious defects of management, as regards the hospitals andcharities especially, that a voluntary association, composed mainlyof ladies, and known as the State Charities Aid Association, wasformed in New York some years ago, and has obtained from thelegislature powers of compulsory inspection. Its volunteer visitorsare thus enabled to visit and examine all the institutions belongingto the city, as well as those of the State at large, and report ontheir condition both to the public and to the superiors of theofficers criticized. The emigrants, of whom by far the greaterportion pass through New York, are also placed in charge ofCommissioners of Emigration, appointed by the mayor, whose duty is toafford all information and assistance which helpless strangers arelikely to require on their first arrival in a foreign country. Theirduties include also the discovery on shipboard, and detention forreturn to the country of their origin, of all paupers, cripples,and insane persons or others who are likely to become a chargeto the city. These functions are discharged in a huge woodenstructure known as Castle Garden, on the southernmost point ofManhattan Island, at the lower end of Broadway. Their magnitudevaries from year to year. In 1883 about 405,000 emigrantsof all ages and both sexes passed through the hands of thecommissioners.

Government and Administration.—During the first stage of thecolony the government was to all intents and purposes a militaryone. The governor, or director-general, appointed by the DutchEast India Company, exercised virtually absolute power, subject,of course, to the distant control of the directors in Holland. In1652 the town received municipal magistrates appointed for oneyear by the director-general. They held office at his will, andwere liable to have their decisions overruled by him on appeal;but, subject to these conditions, they possessed the powers and

Courts and Police.—The city has three courts of record, of whichtwo, the superior court and court of common pleas, possess concurrent jurisdiction with the supreme court of the State in allcases in which the cause of action has arisen within the county,or in which the property or other thing in dispute lies within thecounty, or in which the defendant is a resident. Each court hassix judges, elected by popular vote for a term of fourteen years. Thesupreme court can, however, remove any cause from either of thesecourts by order on notice, and take jurisdiction of them itself, butin that case the trial must take place in another county. The third,formerly the marine court, now the city court, consists also of sixjudges. Its jurisdiction, however, is limited to cases not involvingmore than $2000 dollars in value, and to the enforcement againstreal estate of mechanics' liens, that is, of liabilities incurred tocontractors or labourers who have been engaged in the constructionof a house or other work of improvement on land. The only marinecauses of which the court has cognizance are suits brought by sailorsfor wages, or by any person for assault and battery or false imprisonmenton board a vessel. Below these are ten district courts whichare not courts of record, and whose jurisdiction only extends tocases not involving over $250. The justice of each court is electedby popular vote, and holds office for six years, and must be amember of the bar. Appeals from his decisions, in certain casesspecified by statute, lie to the court of common pleas. The surrogate,who has charge of the court of probate, is also elected, andholds office for six years.

The following table shows the growth of New York's manufacturessince the census of 1860:—

Ferries.—As New York is on all sides surrounded by water, ferry-boats form the principal means of communication between it andthe opposite shores. The water-courses of its northernboundary—Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvel Creek—arenarrow enough to bebridged; but, until the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, steamferry-boats supplied the only means of communication with NewJersey and Long and Staten Islands. These boats are arrangedwith cabins for passengers on both sides, and a roadway for horses,waggons, cattle, &c., in the middle. They are worked by the railroadcompanies and other private corporations. The principal ferriesto New Jersey, running from the Hudson River side, have their piersat the foot of the following streets:—Liberty, Cortlandt, Barclay,Chambers, Desbrosses, Christopher, Twenty-Third, andForty-Second. The principal ferries to Brooklyn, running from the EastRiver side, have their piers at the foot of the followingstreets:—Whitehall (2), Wall, Fulton, Catharine, Roosevelt, Grand, andHouston. There are also two ferry lines to Staten Island, four toLong Island City, one to Astoria, L.I., one to Blackwell's Island,two to Greenpoint, L.I., and one to Governor's Island. TheBrooklyn ferry-boats leave their piers every ten minutes (and thosefrom Fulton Street every five minutes) during the business hours,lessening their trips afterwards to one every fifteen or twentyminutes. On the New Jersey side they run at intervals of fromten to thirty minutes. During certain of the busiest hours of themorning and evening the fare for each foot passenger on the leadingBrooklyn ferries is 1 cent; during the rest of the day it is 2 cents.On the New Jersey ferries it is uniformly 3 cents.

The Brooklyn Bridge connecting New York with Brooklyn acrossthe East River is much the largest suspension bridge yet constructed,measuring 5989 feet in length, while that at Kieff, the next largest,only measures 2562. The work on it began in 1870, and it wasopened for traffic on May 24, 1883. The bridge consists of a centralspan 1595½ feet in length from tower to tower, two spans of 930feet each from the towers to the anchorage on either side, and theapproaches of ironwork and masonry, the one on the New York sidebeing 1562²⁄₃ feet, and that on the Brooklyn side 971 feet in length.The towers, between which the central span extends, are 276²⁄₃ feetabove high water, and rest upon a rock foundation 80 feet belowthe surface of the river and 40 feet below its bed. The cables, fourin number, supporting the spans, are 15¾ inches in diameter, and3757½ feet in length. They rest on movable “saddles” wherethey pass over the towers, exerting here a vertical pressure only,the stress (or lengthwise pull) being sustained wholly at the anchorages,masses of solid stone masonry weighing 60,000 tons each, andrising 90 feet above the river's edge. Each cable contains 5282galvanized steel wires in nineteen separate strands, consisting of 278lengths, each strand having over 200 miles of continuous wire.The wires are laid parallel (not twisted), and packed as closely aspossible, the greatest care being necessary to secure perfect evennessof length, and are covered with an outside spiral wrapping of wire.The deflexion of the cables between the towers is 128 feet; the clearheight of the bridge above high water is 135 feet in the centre and118 feet at the towers, giving a free passage to shipping. The widthof the bridge is 85 feet, divided between five passage ways. In thecentre is a footway 15½ feet wide and raised 12 feet above the otherpassages, giving an open view on both sides; next this on eachside are tracks for cars, worked by cables from a stationary engineat the Brooklyn terminus; and outside of these are waggon ways 19feet wide. The entire cost of the bridge, $15,500,000, was borne bythe cities of New York and Brooklyn, the latter paying two-thirds.

Hudson River Tunnel.—The width of the Hudson River alongthe city's front is so great that no engineer has yet proposed tobridge it there; but an engineering feat almost as difficult is now inprogress. This is the excavation of a tunnel beneath the bed ofthe river large enough to permit the running of steam trains in it.The work is in the hands of private capitalists. The entrance ofthe tunnel in New York is at the foot of Morton Street; in JerseyCity it is at the foot of Fifteenth Street, near the Hoboken line.Work was begun at the New Jersey entrance in 1874, and at NewYork entrance several years later. There are in fact to be twotunnels, about 25 feet apart, with connexions every 1000 feet.This mode of construction is easier than to make one tunnelof double width. The river from bulkhead to bulkhead at this pointmeasures 5400 feet in width, and each entrance is about 60 feetback from the bulkhead. The tunnels will measure, inside, 17 feet

in width and 17 feet in height. From Jersey City one tunnel hadbeen, in August 1882, completed a distance of 1600 feet, and theother a distance of 640 feet; from New York 170 feet of one tunnelonly is completed. Unfinished work has been pushed a considerabledistance farther on each side. The material through which thetunnel is cut has made its construction very difficult—on the NewJersey side silt, and on the New York side a light sandy soil,through both of which the overlying water percolates freely, and itwas necessary to keep this water out of the excavated sections asthe work proceeded. The plan adopted consisted of the sinking,at each mouth, of a heavy caisson of timber to the required depth.In the river side of this, when it was completed, a hole was cutcorresponding with the mouth of the tunnel. The caisson was air-tight,and into it the air was pumped until it reached a density sufficientto prevent the entrance of the water. As soon as a short section isexcavated it is lined with iron plates firmly braced. The interiorof the tunnel will therefore consist of an outer lining of iron, andan inner lining of bricks laid in mortar. Whenever one section iscompleted an iron bulkhead is moved to its further end, and a newair-tight chamber is formed beyond the bulkhead. The companyhas met with financial embarrassments, and the work hasmeanwhile been suspended.

1. ↑ New York is 3° E. of Washington. In time it is 12^m beforeWashington, 55^m before Chicago, 3^h 14^m before San Francisco, and4^h 56^m after Greenwich.
2. ↑ When the present street plan was adopted, no arrangement wasmade for back entrances to the houses as in Boston and Philadelphia,and the consequence is that all ashes and refuse have to be removedby a front door, and are placed in barrels on the sidewalk in themorning to await the arrival of the municipal scavenger carts, whichis very uncertain as to time. The streets, consequently, are defacedfor half the day by these unsightly accumulations. In the betterquarters the inhabitants avoid this by having their refuse removed attheir own cost by dustmen who enter the houses for it. They havethe streets in front of the houses swept in the same way to make upfor the defects of the municipal street cleaning. When we pass outof this favoured region we find the garbage and ashes heaped in frontof the doors, and the streets impeded by carts and waggons whichtheir owners, in disregard of the municipal ordinances, are allowed tokeep standing out of doors, thus saving themselves the expense ofcoach-houses. Consequently, all that portion of New York whichdoes not lie within a quarter of a mile of Broadway or Fifth Avenuepresents a spectacle of dirt and disorder and bad pavement for whichit would be difficult to find a parallel in other great capitals. Thefine and well-kept part of the city nowhere touches on the rivers orapproaches them, but runs in a long central line north and south,and the river banks are lined by wooden wharves. Some part of thisneglect to beautify the city is due to the rapidity of its growth, someto defects in the plan on which it is laid out, but more to the badnessof the municipal government.
3. ↑ The following are the numbers given in the different United Statescensus returns:—in 1790, 33,131; in 1800, 60,515; in 1810,96,373; in 1820, 123,706; in 1830, 202,589; in 1840, 312,710;in 1850, 515,547; in 1860, 813,669; in 1870, 942,292; in 1880,1,206,299
4. ↑ The legal title of the corporation is now the “ Mayor, Aldermen, andCommonalty of the City of New York,” and the legislative branch consists of a boardof twenty-four aldermen, who constitute the common council, and are elected bya majority vote, one from each electoral district, within the city limits, whichsends a member to the State assembly.